The City of Iriga (Bikol: Ciudad nin Iriga; Filipino: Lungsod ng Iriga) is a fourth class city in the province of Camarines Sur, Philippines. It is located about 400 kilometers south of
Manila, 37 kilometers south of Naga, and about 61 kilometers north of Legazpi City. It is bounded by the town of Buhi in the east, by the municipalities of Baao, Nabua and Bato in the west, by the province of Albay in the south,
and by the municipalities of Ocampo and Sangay in the north.

According to the 2000 census, it has a population of 88,893 people in 17,061
households.

History

EARLY HISTORY OF CAMARINES SUR Camarines Sur came out of an original
geographic community which covers the present provinces of Albay, Sorsogon,
Catanduanes, Masbate, Camarines Sur and Camarines Norte. According to the
research conducted by historian Dr. Danilo Gerona, the word Camarines first
came into print when Miguel Lopez de Lagaspi’s grandson Captain Juan de
Salcedo, with 120 men, launched several expeditions to find and conquer the
fabled mining village of Paracale and Mambulao in 1573. The Spaniards
identified the area as Camarines referring to the entire stretch of the Bikol
River.

After the conquest, on June 4, 1579, Governor-General Francisco de Sande
ordered Captain Juan de Guzman to “take the two discalced fathers of the
Franciscan Order and bring them to the Bikol River and to any place of that
province they wish to go…churches must be built whenever the Fathers indicate,
you must inform the Spaniards settled there the presence of the Fathers in the
area…”

Further, the Governor-General decreed that the commander of the Spanish
conquistadores encamped in the river area should “discuss with the religious
present in the place to settle in that province of Bikol and Camarines and in
such a site a villa should be raised and gives the name which you may deem
appropriate and you should command all the encomenderos of the province to live
and build their houses there and not elsewhere…” In response to this decree
Villa de Caceres (Naga) was established, which was eventually was elevated into
an Ayuntamiento or city.

Nueva Caceres served as the civil and ecclesiastical center as other
encomiendas were established within the river basin. Among those first
established were Milanit (Milaor), Guas (Goa), Magarao, Minalva (Minalabac),
Carvanga (Calabanga), Aliman (Libmanan), Lagonoy, Nabua, Bula, and Buy
(Buhi)

EARLY SETTLEMENT IN IRIGA

Iriga, from a phrase in the language “I raga” which means there is land,
grew from the settlement by the bank of the Bikol River called Bua (Nabua), who
were looking for higher grounds due to the perennial and disastrous flooding of
the town during the rainy season.

Bua was a low marshy terrain easily flooded during the rainy season. Because
of this some people, upon the advice Father Felix de Huertas, then parish
priest of Nubua, the farmers to move to I-raga where they can plant their crops
without fears of being flooded.

Taking the advice of the priest, people left Bua and settled to a higher
land located at the foot of Sumagang , a mountain east of Bua. The foot of the
mountain had large tracts of land available for cultivation suitable for
settlement and unlike Bua; it does not suffer from severe flooding during the
torrential rainy season. The settlement was then called Iraga, which “there is
land” in the local language.

PACIFICATION AND CONVERSION

The Franciscan friars, who set foot in the Bikol peninsula, saw in the new
land a good ground for evangelization. As evangelization by the Franciscan
friars progressed, Iraga developed in size and wealth. Soon therefore,
foundation work had been laid down by proclaiming it a visita of Nabua. More
and more people from Nabua came to Iraga to settle.

As population spread out and evangelization progressed, the settlement at
the foot of Sumagang Mountain developed in size and wealth, slowly pushing the
Agtas up to the thickness of the forests. And in 1578 the I-raga settlement was
established as “visita” of Nabua and a church made of wood was constructed.
Saint Anthony of Padua was the patron saint of the parish with Father Pedro de
Jesus and Father Bartolome Ruiz serving as its religious heads. In 1583, five
years after church was constructed, Agta warriors razed the church to the
ground. A second one was constructed but it too was destroyed by a typhoon and
razed to ashes again by fire.

January 4, 1641, Sumagang erupted, forming gully on Buhi side of the
mountain leading to a steep ravine which is the crater of the volcano.
According to stories, the Nuestra Senora de Angustia appeared at Inorogan and
through miracle saved the Irigeños from the terrible eruption.

In 1682, with a population of 8,909, I-raga was converted into Pueblo de la
Provincia de Ambos Camarines. Later on, the Spanish authorities changed the
name from I-raga to Iriga and In 1710 Don Bonifacio de los Angeles organized
the first four barrios of Iriga - San Agustin, San Isidro, San Nicolas and San
Antonio Abad.

In 1727 after the second churched was destroyed, a new church was built,
unfortunately it too was destroyed in a fire in 1841. Finally, shortly after
the last church was destroyed, Fray Tomas de Alfafara finally led the
construction of a new parish church, together with its two belfries made of
bricks and stones. It was the later on repaired in 1866, and in 1892 the tower
was rebuilt with wood and iron.

In 1823, in the Memorias de la Provincia de Ambos Camarines shows that the
number of Barangay in “pueblo de Iriga” was composed of San Roque, San
Francisco de Asis, San Juan Bautista, Sto. Domingo de Guzman, San Miguel
Arcangel, San Nicolas de Tolentino, San Agustin, San Antonio Abad, Sto. Nino
and Santiago de Galicia with a population of 13,813. There were only four roads
mentioned and they were coming from Nabua going to Bato, to Buhi and to
Polangui, Albay and there was only one way going to Nueva Caceres (Naga) via
Bicol River by boat.

TROUBLED TIMES

In 1846, during the term of Don Juan Lomaad, a great famine swept the Bikol
area. Prices of rice soared up, the Spanish government ordered people to plant
more staple food but it did not do much good as starvation ensued which took
many lives.

More than a decade later, in 1857, a cholera epidemic broke out causing the
death of thousands of inhabitants. As if that was not enough, an earthquake
struck Iriga damaging the town church and several other buildings. In 1871,
during the term of Don Lucas Caayao, a new epidemic, this time smallpox, took
many lives. Aside from this, in the same year, a swarm of locust destroyed the
crops in Iriga causing starvation among its inhabitants.

THE EMERGING MUNICIPALITY

In 1901, as part of American colonialist strategy to pacify and attract the
Filipinos, the first public school in Iriga, Iriga Central School, was
established . In 1913 the Manila Railroad Company Station and the public market
was established at its present site . With the establishment of the train
station and the public market, Iriga rapidly grew and became the center of
trade and commerce in the Rinconada area.

HOME TO THE FIRST BUS COMPANY IN THE PHILIPPINES

The development of the municipality got another stimulus when in July 1914
when Albert L. Ammen, a former American serviceman established the A.L. Ammen
Transport Co., Inc (ALATCO). ALATCO with an initial fleet of one converted
two-cylinder Grawbosky truck was the first bus company in the Philippines.

Its first route was Iriga-Naga; however, as the venture became more
successful, the company expanded its fleet to service the other towns of
Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte, Albay and Sorsogon, hence opening remote
villages of Bikol, to the mainstream of economic and social development.

Later on, in 1918 Max L. Blouse, one of ALATCO’s drivers would also start
his own transportation company, the Batangas, Laguna, Tayabas Bus Company
(BLTB).

THE WORLD WAR II YEARS

The American colonial period temporarily ended in 1942 when World War II
broke out. The Japanese Imperial Army established a garrisoned at Kalbaryo hill
overlooking the city proper. Iriga Central School became a concentration camp;
those who could not be accommodated were brought to the Ateneo de Naga.

Like in many other places, Bicolano guerrilla units be helped to the
Philippine Commonwealth forces spring up in Iriga after the formal American and
Philippine colonialist resistance has ended. Mt. Iriga became the base of the
resistance attracting recruits not only from Iriga but even as far as Albay.
With the help of the Agtas who were very familiar with the terrain, the
Japanese army could penetrate the interiors of the mountain.

AS A CITY

With the end of the Japanese occupation in May 15, 1945, the Japanese
Imperial forces from the Prisoners of War by surrender to the Philippine
Commonwealth troops and Bicolano guerrillas in Iriga, the Iriga Central was
reopened and rehabilitation began. In 1948, the first college in Iriga City,
the Mabini Memorial College was established by Atty. Felix O. Alfelor. A year
later, Atty. Ortega would also establish the Saint Anthony College.

The establishment of these centers for higher learning, including the La
Consolacion Academy further spurred the growth and development of the
municipality as it attracts students from all over the region.

In 1960s, Iriga saw tremendous economic and social progress. On July 8,
1968, the city was converted into a city through Republic act 5261. However, it
was only on September 3 of the same year that the City was formally organized
and inaugurated as the third city of the Bikol Region by then President
Ferdinand Marcos.